X-Bats earns MLB suspension

[Birdbats]

Apparently, the folks who make X-Bats did something to rub MLB the wrong way. According to St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Derrick Goold: "A handful of Cardinals — and certainly players around baseball — are without their usual bats this spring because a bat manufacturer has been fined and (at least momentarily) suspended from use by Major League Baseball. Above each of the players lockers in the clubhouse is a shelf usually loaded with bats, but Yadier Molina, Cesar Izturis, Skip Schumaker and pitcher Ryan Franklin did not have any stacked because their company, X-Bats, is momentarily suspended for a dispute not related to the quality or makeup of the bats, a club official said. Each player has shifted to another brand of bat or is test-driving selections." I did a quick search of the Web and couldn't find more information about the suspension. Does anybody have more information? Wonder what a bat company could do to earn a fine and suspension...

[AWA85]

Does that mean we could see a large number of X bats hit the market now, or did the players never get them yet this season? Very interesting story.

[kylehess10]

I'm VERY glad to hear this, especially since the original post on here about their customer service

[OaklandAsFan]

There were reps from Zinger out in Phoenix today and the A's training facility trying to get anyone who would listen to them to try their bats.

[kingjammy24]

I'm VERY glad to hear this, especially since the original post on here about their customer service

kyle, i was well into my 20s before i started developing a good case of schadenfreude. bravo!

rudy.

[brianborsch]

Yeah, they suck! It just shows that what goes around, comes around.

[hblakewolf]

Instead of guessing, I asked the owners of Xbat for information on this. The following email was received:

----- Original Message ----- From: X Bats@XX
To: Howard Wolf
Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2008 10:04 PM
Subject: Re: BATS



My son, who had just graduated from college, was working on our website (my wife and I were very occupied with my father-in-law who has esophageal cancer and moved in with us during the World Series) and thought it would be nice for the Fall Classic to show two bats showing “2007 World Series, Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies”. We never sold a single one of these bats but MLB said using their trademarked names, World Series, Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies was a violation of their intellectual property rights. They suspended us for the 2008 season, then relented and said we would only have to pay them a $50,000 penalty if we wanted to continue being approved for the Major Leagues in 2008 (we were the number two bat in baseball in 2003-2007). $50,000. was more than we made the entire 2007 year, our best year since we started. We are trying to work it out this week, but they won’t budge on the $50,000. 17 Employees at our Jamestown, NY factory are in danger of losing their livelihoods. Not a good situation for us.

When I asked if they mind if I make their email/info. public, they responded with:

It’s all fact, people need to know how they treat small business. They are protecting their licensees and there is absolutely no human element involved whatsoever. Our crafts people are sick about it. I haven’t slept in two months, getting up at 2am worrying about how we stay afloat. Very hard for us to swallow. We’ll work for them for a year to preserve all we’ve accomplished over the past 7 years in getting 305 Major Leaguers to swing our bats

Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@patmedia.net

[kellsox]

Wow- a pretty stiff penalty for items allegedly never sold. I hope things work out for them as I did notice an increasing amount of players using their bats. I never really agreed with the backlash toward XBats. I realize for a while there was no difference between player model and publically purchased XBats, but I never felt that the company had to cater to the collector. Same thing with revealing information about player orders. Not many industries can someone call a company and request information about others' purchases and expect to get help. I don't agree with the way that the employee from XBAts dealt with the situation in the thread posted here a while ago but I;m assuming that they were doing something right based on the amount of players bringing thier bats to the plate.
Kelly

[godwulf]

MLB, out of control, as usual. Those guys make Microsoft look like a bunch of Quakers.

What can you expect, though, from an organization that routinely suspends pitchers for the offense of getting attacked by another player, and tolerates umpires who make up their own strike zone from game to game?

[mvandor]

If the most they've made was under $50,000 in a year, as a businessman, I suggest they find a new line of work. T'ain't enough cheddar to make running ANY biz worth the stress - especially after 7 years.